EMMITSBURG, MD – The sixth-ranked Johns Hopkins men’s lacrosse team had 11 different players score goals and 13 players had at least one point as the Blue Jays topped host Mount St. Mary’s, 17-2, at Waldron Family Stadium Monday afternoon. Johns Hopkins moves to 8-3 on the year with its third straight win, while the Mountaineers slip to 0-14.

Playing less than 48 hours after an emotional 11-6 win over rival Maryland, the Blue Jays led just 2-0 at the end of the first quarter as the Mount stayed in a tightly packed zone defense. Back-to-back goals in the first three minutes of the second quarter doubled the lead as junior Wells Stanwick found seniors Brandon Benn and Kevin Interlicchio alone on the crease in a 48-second span to push the lead to 4-0.

Johns Hopkins controlled a majority of the possession in the first half by winning 8-of-10 faceoffs and slowly began to find seams in the Mount zone. Benn added his second of the first half on a quick-stick from the doorstep less than four minutes after Interlicchio’s goal and freshman John Crawley had a hand in two straight late in the period, scoring an unassisted goal on a wing dodge and then getting the helper on Benn’s third with 1:02 left. A transition goal by freshmanNick Fields off the ensuing faceoff accounted for an 8-0 Blue Jay lead at the half.

The lead swelled to 12-0 by late in the third quarter as freshman Cody Radziewicz, junior Brady Faby, Interlicchio andHolden Cattoni all scored in a span of less than eight minutes to build the 12-goal lead.

The Mountaineers finally broke through in the final seconds of the third quarter as Bubba Johnson beat Blue Jay goalie Eric Schneider with a low shot off an assist from Kyle McDonough and the Mount made it two straight at the 10:29 mark of the fourth quarter when Clayton Wainer scored from the wing.

Both teams substituted liberally in the fourth quarter with Johns Hopkins freshman attackman Jack Grass doing most of the damage with three goals and one assist in the final nine minutes of the game. Sophomore Liam Giblin and senior Greg Edmonds also scored in the final quarter for the Blue Jays, who played a total of 45 players in the game.

Johns Hopkins held decided advantages in shots (57-14), ground balls (47-19) and faceoffs (18-5) and matched a season high with 12 caused turnovers. Mount St. Mary’s goalie Chris Klaiber played well in goal for the Mount as his 19 saves were just one shy of his career high.

Stanwick paced the Blue Jays with a career-high-tying six assists, while Benn and Grass both added hat tricks. Four Blue Jay goalies combined for six saves with Schneider playing 45 minutes and stopping three shots.

Johns Hopkins will return to action on Friday, April 18 when the Blue Jays hit the road again at Navy. Faceoff is set for 7 pm.

Notes: Johns Hopkins has not allowed a first-quarter goal in the last three games • Stanwick’s six assists give him 36 on the year, the ninth-highest single-season total in school history and the most by a Johns Hopkins player since Dan Denihan had 40 in 2000 • JHU is now 65-8 under head coach Dave Pietramala against teams from the state of Maryland.

The Game: Johns Hopkins makes a quick turnaround from its game against Maryland on Saturday as the Blue Jays make the short trip to Emmitsburg, Maryland to take on Mount St. Mary’s. Faceoff from Waldron Family Stadium is set for 4 pm. The Johns Hopkins-Mount St. Mary’s game was originally scheduled for Tuesday, March 4, but snow forced the game to be postponed.

A Look Back: Johns Hopkins picked up its second straight win with an 11-6 win over rival Maryland before a crowd of 9.553 at Homewood Field on Saturday. Mount St. Mary’s gave 17th-ranked Bryant all it could handle before falling 9-7 on the road on Saturday.

Series History: Johns Hopkins and Mount St. Mary’s are meeting for the sixth time in a series that dates to a 19-6 Johns Hopkins victory in 2006. The Blue Jays have won each of the five previous meetings, including a 15-3 victory in 2007 in JHU’s only other trip to Mount St. Mary’s.

These are the Facts: Johns Hopkins enters this week’s game against Mount St. Mary’s with an all-time record of 940-306-15 (.751). The Blue Jays own nine NCAA titles, 29 USILA titles and six ILA titles for a total of 44 national championships.

Poll Position: Johns Hopkins was ranked ninth in last week’s USILA Coaches Poll and eighth in the Warrior/Inside Lacrosse Media Poll. Mount St. Mary’s was not ranked in either poll. Rankings for April 14 were not available in time to be included in this edition of the Johns Hopkins men’s lacrosse notes, but JHU’s official ranking at the time of the game will be what the Blue Jays check in at in the USILA Poll.

Closing on Mr. Scott: Dave Pietramala picked up his 154th victory as the head coach at Johns Hopkins with the 11-6 victory against Maryland and he continues to close in on the record for most career coaching victories at Homewood. Only Bob Scott, who won 158 games as the head coach at JHU from 1955-74, has won or coached (214) more games than Pietramala at Johns Hopkins.

Career Win Number 177: In addition to his 154-53 (.744) mark as the head coach at JHU, Dave Pietramala also postd a 23-17 record in three seasons as the head coach at Cornell and now boasts an overall record of 177-70 (.717). Pietramala’s 177 wins rank 10th among active Division I coaches.

New Blue: The Johns Hopkins lineup features six new starters after a large senior class departed Homewood last spring. The six are spread throughout the lineup and include Eric Schneider (G), Rob Enright (D), John Kelly (D), Holden Cattoni(M), Connor Reed (M) and Ryan Brown (A). Brown did start four games at midfield last season, but made the move to his natural attack position this season, and Enright had five career starts through his first two seasons.

New Blue II: In addition to the six new starters in the lineup, the overall Blue Jay roster is also vastly different than a year ago. Gone are 11 seniors who exhausted their eligibility and in their place are 17 freshmen.

Youth Will be Served: Johns Hopkins is fielding one of the youngest rosters in the nation this season as 17 of the team’s 49 players are freshmen and 29 are either freshmen or sophomores. Only nine of the 49 are seniors and two of those nine – Eric Schneider and Phil Castronova – have an extra year of eligibility and are planning to return for the 2015 season.

For Starters: Entering the 2014 season, the entire 49-man Johns Hopkins roster counted a total of 132 combined career starts to its credit. Of those 132, Rob Guida (38), Jack Reilly (30), Brandon Benn (29) and Wells Stanwick (17) accounted 114, or 86.7%. No other returning player had started more than five games for the Blue Jays. By contrast, last year’s 11-man senior class graduated with a combined 321 starts with six of those 11 players earning 45 or more starts during their careers.

An Offensive Group: Johns Hopkins enters this week’s game against Mount St. Mary’s averaging 12.2 goals per game and the Blue Jays have scored at least 10 goals in all but one game this season. Entering the game against Maryland, JHU ranked 11th in the nation in scoring offense, second in assists per game and eighth in points per game. Updated NCAA statistics are published on Mondays and were not available at press time.

Sharing the Ball: An effective part of the Blue Jay offense this season has been the ability to move the ball and that has shown up in the percentage of the team’s goals that have been assisted thus far. Through 10 games, 78 of JHU’s 122 goals have been assisted, or 63.9%. Only three times since 2003 has Johns Hopkins finished a season with more than 60% of its goals being assisted. The 2003 team assisted on 67.4% of its goals, while the 2004 (64.3%) and 2009 (62.4%) teams also eclipsed the 60% mark.

Extra, Extra: Johns Hopkins converted on two of its four extra-man opportunities last week against Maryland and is now 18-of-33 (.545) for the year. The Blue Jays ranked third in the nation in extra-man offense heading into the Maryland game. Brandon Benn (6 EMO goals), Holden Cattoni (5), Ryan Brown (4) and Wells Stanwick (3) have combined to score all 18 EMO goals for JHU this season.

Kennedy, Faceoff Unit Shines: Behind the efforts of junior Drew Kennedy, Johns Hopkins ranked third in the nation in faceoff winning percentage entering the game against Maryland. Despite a rare off day against the Terps (JHU was 6-of-21), the Blue Jays have still won 150-of-248 (.605) as a team on the year.

For his part, Kennedy has been a workhorse as he is 143-of-228 (.627) through 10 games and also has a team-high 100 ground balls thus far. He ranks among the national leaders in faceoff winning percentage and ground balls per game (10.0) after winning 21-of-25 faceoffs with 15 ground balls against Syracuse, following that with a 16-of-25 performance with 11 ground balls at Virginia and capping a three-week run against top 10 teams with a 20-of-26 showing with 13 GBs against North Carolina. The 21 faceoff wins and 15 ground balls against the Orange are both career highs.

Holding Them Down: The Blue Jays have held the opposition scoreless for long stretches at key points this season. The 10 teams Johns Hopkins has played thus far have 13 scoreless droughts of 11 minutes or longer and 10 of 15 minutes or longer. JHU held Maryland scoreless for stretches of 20:11 to open the game and 18:52 immediately after the Terps scored their first goal.

More Holding Them Down: Johns Hopkins has held each of its 10 opponents under its season scoring average (current average) thus far. The Blue Jays held Albany to just eight goals (just over half of what the Great Danes entered the game averaging), and Maryland to just six goals (less than half the Terps’ average entering the game). In all, JHU has held eight of its 10 opponents to nine goals or less.

The Retrievers completed the non-conference slate at 4-4, while Mount St. Mary’s fell to 0-8.

“We came ready to play,” said head coach Don Zimmerman. “We were disappointed in the back-to-back losses and determined to come up here and play well.”

Gregoire had a hand in all five UMBC first quarter goals as the Retrievers raced out to a 5-1 lead after 15 minutes. He converted a pair of feeds from Maxwell in the first 4:05 of the stanza to stake the Retrievers to a quick 2-0 lead. After the Mount got a goal back ,the senior tri-captain took advantage of a Mountaineer turnover and scored on an unsettled situation to give UMBC a 3-1 advantage at the 8:35 mark. Then, playing the point on the man-up, he fed sophomore midfielder Jack Gannon (Lake Ronkonkoma, N.Y./Sachem North) and Maxwell for inside tallies in the late stages of the quarter to propel the Retrievers to a 5-1 advantage.

Lewnes stretched the lead to 6-1 early in the second quarter, but Mount responded with back-to-back scores to come within 7-3 at the 5:19 mark. But Gregoire got one back at the 8:32 mark and the Retrievers scored twice in the final 26 seconds of the stanza to take a 9-3 lead into the break.

The Mount opened the third quarter with a goal just 1:58 into the period, but Lewnes started a 7-0 response with back-to-back scores which gave the visitors an insurmountable 16-4 lead early in the fourth quarter.

“Nate (Lewnes) played injured and we didn’t know if he was going to play,” said Coach Zimmerman. “He plays, he’s a tough kid and he has his best day shooting the ball. Matt (Gregoire) has been a great leader for us since he’s been at UMBC. He finishes opportunities.”

Freshman attackman Max Maxwell (Hamburg, N.Y./Hamburg) also posted a season-best, scoring twice and adding three assists for five points. Gannon added a pair of scores and an assist, while senior midfielder Ryan Johnston (Huntingtown, Md./Huntingtown) added a goal and two helpers .

All of UMBC’s players in uniform competed in the contest.

UMBC outshot MSM, 47-25 and controlled 18 of 27 draws. Red-shirt freshman netminder Connor Gordon (Bourne, Mass./Tabor Academy) made six saves, allowing four goals in the first 46:48 of the game. Senior face-off specialist Phil Poe (Harwood, Md./DeMatha) won 14 of the 19 draws he attempted and collected a season-best 12 ground balls.

The 17 goals and 12 assists recorded by UMBC were season-highs and the most goals since a 17-16 win over Albany on April 21, 2012.

UMBC opens America East Conference play versus Stony Brook at UMBC Stadium on Friday, March 28 at 7:30 p.m.

Notes: Gregoire now has 26 goals through eight games in 2014… He recorded UMBC’s first six-goal goal since Scott Jones scored six times versus Vermont on April 6, 2013… UMBC remained undefeated in 21 all-time meetings versus Mount St. Mary’s… The win snapped a four-game road losing streak for the Retrievers, dating back to the 2013 season.

UMBC plays its final non-conference game of the season on Saturday, March 22 when they visit Mount St. Mary’s at Waldron Family Stadium in Emmitsburg, Md. The opening face-off is set for noon. Live video streaming is available on Northeast Conference Front Row.

RETRIEVER UPDATE: For the second time in four days, the UMBC men’s lacrosse team (3-4) dropped a two-goal decision on the road, falling, 10-8, to Towson at chilly Unitas Stadium on Tuesday, March 18. SO M Jack Gannon led the visitors with three goals and SR A Matt Gregoire added his 19th and 20th goals of the season. The three-goal effort was the first of Gannon’s career. Gregoire has scored all 20 of his season’s goals in the last six games, while Gannon has produced 10 goals and eight assists in his last five contests. Entering the week, Gregoire was second in America East and ninth nationally with 3.00 goals per game.

MOUNTAINEER UPDATE: The Mount St. Mary’s men’s lacrosse team (0-7) outscored No. 20 Drexel by a 6-4 margin over the final three quarters of last Saturday’s tilt at Waldron Family Stadium, but could not overcome a fast start by the Dragons in a 9-6 home loss. Bubba Johnson scored his first career hat trick to go with the first two collegiate goals for freshman Mikey Ripa for the Mount. In net for the Mountaineers, Chris Klaiber turned away 13 shots, including five in the opening quarter, when Drexel took a 5-0 lead. Against common opponents, Mount has dropped decisions at Maryland (16-3) and Towson (9-1). Johnson leads MSM with six goals and eight points on the season.

LAST YEAR’S RESULT/ALL-TIME SERIES: UMBC senior close defender Ethan Murphy snapped an 8-8 tie with his first goal of the season with 6:48 remaining as the host Retrievers prevailed, 10-8, over Mount St. Mary’s at UMBC Stadium on March 23, 2013. The game-winning goal capped an outstanding day for Murphy, who led an excellent defensive effort by the Retrievers with six ground balls and three caused turnovers. Pat Young and Matt Gregoire each scored a pair of goals.

The Retrievers improved to 20-0 in all-time meetings vs. Mount St. Mary’s. Prior to last year’s contest, the two teams had not met since 2003. The last meeting in Emmitsburg occured in 2002 and resulted in a 7-5 UMBC victory.

WHO’S UP NEXT: UMBC opens its 11th season of America East Conference play on Friday evening, March 28, when they host Stony Brook at 7:30 p.m.

Emmitsburg, Md. (March 16, 2014)—The Northeast Conference Champion Mount St. Mary’s men’s basketball team was announced as a No. 16 seed in the upcoming NCAA Tournament and will face another 16 seed, Albany, in the First Round on Tuesday, March 18, at 6:40 p.m. The Mount’s First Round game versus the America East Champion will be held in Dayton, Ohio.

Playing in the South Region, a win in the First Round would propel the Mount into a Second Round matchup with No. 1 overall seed Florida on Thursday, March 20, in Orlando, Fla.

This is the Mount’s fourth appearance in the NCAA Tournament, joining the teams from 1995, 1999 and 2008. The Mountaineers have been a No. 16 seed in each of their four appearances. In 1995, the Mount lost to top-seeded Kentucky in the First Round, and in 1999, the Mount fell to top-seeded Michigan State in the First Round. In 2008, the Mount defeated Coppin State in the Opening Round game before falling to No. 1 seed North Carolina in the First Round.

Mount St. Mary’s earned its spot in the NCAA Tournament by defeating Robert Morris, 88-71, in the Northeast Conference Championship game on Tuesday, March 11. The Mountaineers (16-16) were the fourth seed in the NEC Tournament, and rallied to defeat St. Francis Brooklyn in the quarterfinal round before besting second-seeded Wagner on the road in the semifinals.

Tickets will be available through the Mount St. Mary’s Ticket Office beginning at 9:00 a.m. on Monday, March 17. The ticket office phone number is 301-447-5700 and tickets are $60.00.

Two very important things here. One, the appropriate St. Patty’s Day meal is NOT Corned Beef and Cabbage. It’s this.

Two-A reminder that after NFS star Aaron Paul (perhaps you’ve heard of him) finished his interview with us at the Super Bowl, he came back by the table to tell us it was his favorite one of the year. He personally thanked me. Because we’re best friends.

BALTIMORE, MD — The Johns Hopkins-Mount St. Mary’s men’s lacrosse game scheduled for today has been postponed due to unplayable field conditions. The game has been rescheduled for Monday, April 14 at 4 pm.

Johns Hopkins will return to action on Saturday, March 8 when the Blue Jays play at UMBC (1 pm).

The Game: Johns Hopkins makes a quick turnaround from its game at Princeton on Saturday as the Blue Jays make the short trip to Emmitsburg, Maryland to take on Mount St. Mary’s. Faceoff from Waldron Family Stadium is set for 4 pm.

A Look Back: Johns Hopkins made it four straight in the win column to open the season as the Blue Jays topped Princeton, 15-9, on the road last Saturday. Mount St. Mary’s slipped to 0-5 on the year with a 9-1 loss at Towson on Saturday.

Series History: Johns Hopkins and Mount St. Mary’s are meeting for the sixth time in a series that dates to a 19-6 Johns Hopkins victory in 2006. The Blue Jays have won each of the five previous meetings, including a 15-3 victory in 2007 in JHU’s only other trip to Mount St. Mary’s.

These are the Facts: Johns Hopkins enters this week’s game at Mount St. Mary’s with an all-time record of 937-303-15 (.753). The Blue Jays own nine NCAA titles, 29 USILA titles and six ILA titles for a total of 44 national championships.

Poll Position: Johns Hopkins is ranked third in this week’s USILA Coaches Poll and fourth in the Warrior/Inside Lacrosse Media Poll. Mount St. Mary’s is not ranked in either poll.

Closing on Mr. Scott: Dave Pietramala picked up his 151st victory as the head coach at Johns Hopkins with last week’s 15-9 victory at Princeton and he continues to close in on the record for most career coaching victories at Homewood. Only Bob Scott, who won 158 games as the head coach at JHU from 1955-74, has won or coached (214) more games than Pietramala at Johns Hopkins.

About 4-0: Johns Hopkins is 4-0 for the second time in three years and the fourth time under head coach Dave Pietramala. The Blue Jays previously started 4-0 under Pietramala in 2004, 2005 and 2012.

New Blue: The Johns Hopkins lineup features six new starters after a large senior class departed Homewood last spring. The six are spread throughout the lineup and include Eric Schneider (G), Rob Enright (D), John Kelly (D), Bronson Kelly(M), Connor Reed (M) and Ryan Brown (A). Brown did start four games at midfield last season, but made the move to his natural attack position this season, and Enright had five career starts through his first two seasons.

New Blue II: In addition to the six new starters in the lineup, the overall Blue Jay roster is also vastly different than a year ago. Gone are 11 seniors who exhausted their eligibility and in their place are 17 freshmen.

Youth Will be Served: Johns Hopkins is fielding one of the youngest rosters in the nation this season as 17 of the team’s 49 players are freshmen and 29 are either freshmen or sophomores. Only nine of the 49 are seniors and two of those nine – Eric Schneider and Phil Castronova – have an extra year of eligibility and are planning to return for the 2015 season.

For Starters: Entering the 2014 season, the entire 49-man Johns Hopkins roster counted a total of 132 combined career starts to its credit. Of those 132, Rob Guida (38), Jack Reilly (30), Brandon Benn (29) and Wells Stanwick (17) accounted 114, or 86.7%. No other returning player had started more than five games for the Blue Jays. By contrast, last year’s 11-man senior class graduated with a combined 321 starts with six of those 11 players earning 45 or more starts during their careers.

Class Rank: The Blue Jays have gotten balanced production from each of their four classes through four games. Each class has registered at least nine points thus far, with the sophomore (32 points) and junior (26 points) classes leading the way. All four classes have produced at least nine goals through four games.

Must be the Speech: There must be something about the speech that head coach Dave Pietramala gives at halftime that is sparking the Blue Jays. Johns Hopkins was tied with Ohio State at the half (2-2) and led Towson by one (6-5), but the Blue Jays outscored the Buckeyes 6-3 in the third quarter and took that up a notch against the Tigers by outscoring TU 7-1 to put the game away. For the year, Johns Hopkins holds a 20-9 scoring margin in the third quarter. In the first, second and four quarters, JHU is a combined +11 in scoring margin (33-22).

Kennedy Shines: Junior Drew Kennedy has gotten off to a quick start at the X for the Blue Jays as he is 54-of-85 (.635) through four games and also has a team-high 37 ground balls thus far. He ranks ninth in the nation in faceoff winning percentage and sixth in ground balls per game (9.25).
Despite missing most of the preseason, Kennedy suited up and fueled Johns Hopkins’ win against Ohio State with a dominating performance as he was 18-of-22 (.818) and grabbed 13 ground balls in the victory. The 18 faceoff wins and 13 GBs are career highs. In addition, Kennedy’s 18 faceoff wins are the most by a Johns Hopkins player since Mike Poppleton won 20 (of 26) against Stony Brook in the first round of the 2012 NCAA Tournament.
He came back and won 16-of-23 with 10 ground balls against Towson. After winning just 1-of-6 in the first quarter, he was 15-of-17 over the final three quarters against the Tigers.

Crawley Quick Out of the Gate: Freshman John Crawley scored a key goal in the season opener against Ohio State before exploding for four goals on five shots against Towson. He added one goal against Michigan and is now tied for third on the team – and ranks first among midfielders – with six goals on the year. Crawley is the first Johns Hopkins freshman midfielder to score four goals in a game since Paul Rabil scored four times in a 12-11 come-from-behind win at Syracuse on March 18, 2005.

Second-Longest Game in School History: The triple overtime game against Ohio State in the season-opener ranks as the second-longest game in the history of the Johns Hopkins men’s lacrosse program. The longest game in school history was a four-overtime game against Virginia on March 24, 2001.

In Overtime: Johns Hopkins improved to 20-10 all-time in overtime under head coach Dave Pietramala with the 10-9 triple overtime victory against Ohio State. The Blue Jays have now won four of their last five overtime games dating back to late in the 2011 season.

State Rivalries: Johns Hopkins improved its record is to 62-8 (.886) under head coach Dave Pietramala in games played against teams from the state of Maryland with the recent 15-8 victory against Towson.
Including the game against the Tigers, the Blue Jays will play six games this season against in-state rivals.

Poll Position: The Blue Jays are ranked third in this week’s USILA Preseason Coaches Poll. The Johns Hopkins Athletic Communications Office uses the USILA Poll to represent JHU’s official ranking at the time of a game. Prior to falling out of the top 20 of the USILA Poll on April 26 and May 3, 2010 (JHU was receiving votes in both polls), the Blue Jays had been ranked in the top 20 in 367 consecutive polls dating back to the first poll in 1973.

More Poll Position: Including this week’s USILA Poll, there have been 413 weekly polls since the inception of the poll in 1973. Amazingly, JHU has been ranked in the top 20 in 411 of those 413 polls. The Blue Jays have been in the top 10 in 384 of the 413 and the top five in 301 of those 413. Johns Hopkins has been ranked number one 104 times since the poll debuted in 1973.